


tall person keep away

by AstoundinglyMade



Series: late night musings [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Drabble, M/M, Roommates, Tattoos, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 10:03:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19743433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstoundinglyMade/pseuds/AstoundinglyMade
Summary: Sirius has something to hide, but Remus just won't stop putting things away on the high shelf, and now everything is coming out in the open.





	tall person keep away

"Hey, do you think I could…" The rest of the question died on Remus' tongue as he stepped into the kitchen to see Sirius standing on his tiptoes, trying to pull a pie plate down from the top shelf.

"What's that?" Sirius had just got his knee up onto the counter when Remus shook his head and came to his senses.

"For goodness sake, just get down from there. You need the white one, right?"

Hopping back down to the ground, Sirius took a second to right his clothes then looked up to see Remus holding the pie plate just out of his reach. "What are you doing? Just give it here."

"No thanks, don't think I will." Straightening his arm to bring the dish still farther away, Remus turned a cheeky smile in Sirius' direction. "Quick question first, I think."

"Fine. What?" Sirius made no attempt to hide his frustration. As if it wasn't enough that Remus was playing tall person keep away, it was him who'd put the pie plate up there in the first place. Lord knows why, it wasn't like Remus had any intention of ever using it himself.

"Well, I came in to ask if I could borrow your spare key since I'm pretty sure I left mine at work, but now I'm thinking I've a better use for this bit of leverage." Remus pushed the flat of the baking dish against the ceiling, letting his raised arm do the job of keeping it steady while he looked Sirius over. "New question. Why am I on your ass, Sirius?"

On a good day, Sirius would have been embarrassed by the frustrated groan that came out both too loud and too whiny to be dignified, but this wasn't a good day. This was a day that has started with a missed alarm, been made worse by a roommate who seemed to get his kicks by always putting Sirius' things where he had no chance of reaching then, and was now, if possible, about to get much worse. "It's on my back, Remus. And it's not you. It's a wolf tattoo, and it's on my back."

"Yeah, that's not your back, mate." Sirius slumped into the closest chair and rubbed the flats of both hands across his face. "Walk me through this." The laugh was there in Remus' words even as he worked to hold it back. "You go into the tattoo parlor and say, 'I'd like this tattoo of my friend on my ass, please,' and then what did they say?"

There's nothing for it. Sirius had done a pretty good job of hiding the wolf, or so he thought, but that stupid pie plate, stupid Remus really, had forced him up onto his toes, shirt pulling up to expose bare flesh above the waistband of his laundry day joggers. That's it, maybe he could blame the joggers. Stupid pants, always sitting too low. "First of all, I didn't say, 'it's my friend,' because it's not, it's a wolf. And second, we were trying to work it around the others and that's just where it ended up."

"Okay, alright. Let's say that's true. Let's say it's a coincidence that you got a tattoo of a wolf, and I'm a werewolf. Let's just put that highly unlikely coincidence over there for a minute." Remus points to the far wall, at a point frustratingly above where Sirius could ever dream to reach. Of course. "Here's the part you might have trouble explaining. Why'd you hide it?"

Yup. Definitely the fault of the pants. Not even a little bit to blame on the ridiculous way his heart speeds up whenever Remus brushes past him in the hallway, or the traitorous part of him that lets his mind wander to Remus when he brings himself off, and certainly never, never his fault for storming off that day after the fight when Remus told him that nobody could ever love a werewolf. But I do, he'd thought just before he'd found himself around the corner from the shop. I'll show him.

"Fine, you know what? Fine. It's you, or the wolf, it's your wolf, whatever." One hand balled up in his lap, Sirius used the other to knead the tension out of the corners of his eyes. "It's you and it's on my ass."

The room was quiet for just a beat longer than was comfortable, then Remus unlocked his elbow and slowly lowered the pie plate onto the table between them. "Why would you get a picture of a friend on your ass?" The tone is light but the stiff way that Remus was standing wasn't making it any easier.

Hooking a finger into the dish, Sirius pulled it across the table before he stood and took it with him back to the counter to roll out the crust. With his back to Remus now, he took a breath and felt the tension running right up the back of his neck. "You wouldn't, would you? Keys are by the door."

Muscle memory pulled him through the motions of rolling and squaring and repositioning the dough while he counted back from one hundred, numbers in time with the thudding of his heart, until the door clicked shut and he felt like he could breathe again.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @astoundinglymade, because you are. Astoundingly made, that is. We all are, it's wild.


End file.
